A trademark finish from Matty Taylor paved the way for Oxford City to beat Peterborough Sports 2-0 at the MGroup Stadium this afternoon, a result that pushed City closer to survival and left The Turbines spinning towards relegation.

Taylor’s surprise appearance as a second half sub galvanised City after the break as their incredible upturn continued and they made it 14 points from a possible 18 at the most vital time in the season with Ewan Clark scoring a last minute second goal to secure another massive three points.

After their recent run City were understandably full of confidence, zipping the ball around and forcing Peterborough to expend a lot of energy in closing them down on a glorious Bank Holiday afternoon.

Skipper Josh Ashby, at the heart of everything as always, tested keeper Peter Crook’s handling with a well struck effort early on but Peterborough, knowing they needed a win to have any realistic chance of staying up, stuck in there and forced home keeper Max Metcalfe into an important double save after half an hour but sadly for them, that was a close as they were to get all day.

The turning point of the game demonstrated City’s strength in depth, particularly up front. First a kick to the ankle forced DJ Sturridge off and sub Josh Parker came on for a cameo. His first involvement set up Ashley Hemmings for a cross that Clark couldn’t quite steer on target but in doing so Parker picked up an injury and that meant his contribution ended at the break and Taylor came out for the second half.

The former Oxford United striker looked sharp and started to link things together for The Hoops, with his interplay with Zac McEachran a real feature and on the hour he was off the mark with a classic Matty Taylor finish. O’Shea Ellis made it with a pass that slipped Clark away on the left. He raced for the line while Taylor casually drifted to the back post, criminally undetected by the Sports defender. Clark’s cross was perfect and Taylor joyfully volleyed the ball home to score his first goal in City colours.

Now Peterborough truly had to come out and attack but too many chins sunk to chests rather than jutting out and news of a goal at Bedford confirmed their fate.

City, by contrast are far more clinical up front and much harder to break down than early in the season. The clean sheet was never truly in question. Instead most of the game was played around the Peterborough penalty area with City running down the clock and seeing things through expertly and in the final minute Taylor fed Bearne whose cross was tapped home by Clark to finish it off and make it 2-0

What an amazing run City are putting together. Their work is far from over  but this was another big win. Taylor made.

 CITY

Metcalfe, Wilson, Carroll, Harper-Bailey, Humphries, Ashby, Ellis, McEachran (Scott 78), Hemmings (Bearne 74), Clark, Sturridge (Parker 38 (Taylor 46)

SUBS
Roddy, Johnson, Bearne, Parker, Scott, Burroughs, Taylor

Att: 731

Report by Chris Williams, pictures Darrell Fisher